RGA Under Christie Sets January Fundraising Record

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie may have had a difficult time on the home front last month, but he led the Republican Governors Association to a fundraising record.

The RGA said Tuesday that it raised $6 million in January, a monthly record, "with the help of Chairman Christie and all of our Republican governors," Politico reports.

According to RGA communications director Gail Gitcho, that is more than twice the association's fundraising in any previous January, including the last midterm cycle in 2010. Christie has raised $1.5 million this month just from a swing through Texas.

The announcement came as Christie, who has been besieged by the so-called Bridge-gate scandal, visits Chicago as part of the RGA's fundraising efforts.

He will travel to Massachusetts, Utah, Georgia, Connecticut, and Michigan for fundraising "in the coming weeks and months," Gitcho said.

Still, Christie's leadership of the RGA has been called into question by some, including MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, who said on Monday that the governor has become "a distraction to the RGA" and "needs to sit down and do some soul-searching to see whether he wants to defend charges against him or continue this."

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But given the latest fundraising figures released by the RGA, Mediate columnist Noah Rothman wrote, Republican gubernatorial candidates and incumbents may want to think twice about snubbing Christie.

"Rather than asking themselves if they can compete in this election cycle with Christie, perhaps they should be wondering if they can compete without him," he said.